Star Trek

I’m not the sort of person who can talk of their “earliest memories”, since mine tend to be more grouped by theme than chronologically. One of the most vivid, however, comes from 1998 when I was just eleven years old. I was skipping down the road in the Spring sunshine, twirling around lamp-posts and trying to keep as far away from my childminder as possible so she couldn’t encroach on my happiness. I’d had a wonderful day at school, we’d been writing stories, but best of all it was a Friday. Friday meant two things: one, it meant my father was coming home from whatever far off and exotic country he was working in, with an armful of treats, sweets and those funny little souvenir trinkets that come from museums (which I have an unnatural fondness for even now). The second was that Star Trek would be on after supper, and at the time Star Trek was my favourite thing. The year before, I had discovered Star Wars and realised that science fiction was not just a thing with space ships in that boys liked, but an exciting branch of fantasy for me to explore. A few months after this discovery I had discovered Star Trek: The Next Generation when I found my mother watching it while skiving off from Girl Guides.

“I didn’t know you liked Star Trek,” I said, perching on the arm of the sofa.

“Well,” she said, “I liked the original series in the 60s. This is sort of similar.”

I looked at the screen for a while. The bald man from Hamlet (yes I think I saw Hamlet before Star Trek, I was a strange child) and a yellow eyed man were talking to a man with pointy ears and great hair. I didn’t know what was going on, but these people looked interesting. A few minutes watching and I was hooked. After a few months they stopped showing TNG (as I in my infinite geek-dom call it) and started showing the original series, which I adored. I’ve always been rather obsessive in my interests, and Star Trek really did obsess me. I loved the characters, I love the camp sixties chic of the costumes and the effects, I loved the stories, the thinly veiled references to the ancient world, the action, the sense of fun.

Over the years, Star Trek became less fun for me. Later series, like Deep Space Nine and Voyager, just didn’t have that same sense of fun for me. Half a season into “Enterprise”, I woefully mourned the death of my once favourite universe, convinced that “First Contact”, which is still one of my favourite films, was its swansong.

Roll on to last year, when the production of a new movie based on the original series but set prior to it, with the characters much younger, blipped onto my proverbial radar. Interesting, I thought, although the idea of Kirk, Spock, Scottie and McCoy as whiny adolescents rather bothered me. Still, I patiently awaited the film’s release and tonight went to see it with some friends. I was expecting some silliness, some explosions, Kirk being a jerk and Spock saying things are “illogical” but nothing much. I certainly wasn’t expecting the film I just saw.

“Star Trek” is a movie that recalls all that sci-fi and action ought to be. It’s exciting, it’s largely scientifically plausible, but most of all it’s fun. Gloriously fun. The script is glittering with witty lines, the film’s star feature really, hardly a scene goes by without a laugh, but never at the expense of the tension or indeed of the genre and characters themselves. Plus, at one point Spock quotes Sherlock Holmes, which delighted me since I’ve always thought of him as Holmes with pointier ears and less cocaine (they’re both obsessed with logic, they’re both uncomfortable with emotion, they’re both incredibly sexy and yet utterly indifferent!). Action sequences are suitably exciting and varied, from fencing with a telescopic sword a thousand feet in the air, to a phaser battle in the heart of a very pretty Romulan ship. The acting is top notch, most of the cast combine emotional depth with comic timing to create characters who’re not only very like the original cast, but also believable and likeable. I confess, I didn’t recognise most of them, with the exception of Winona Ryder, Eric Bana, the wonderful Simon Pegg, that chap from Lord of the Rings and the pretty one from Heroes, but I’ll be looking out for the rest of them in the future (especially Anton Yelchin, who puts up an adorable performance as Chekov). Oh and Leonard Nimoy turns up, too, which is a wonderful excuse for him to say catchphrases, send up catchphrases and generally be cool.

Plot wise, time travel is involved, but then let’s face it most Star Trek movies involve time travel. Bana plays a very angry Romulan named Nero (do any Romulans have names that aren’t stolen from the Romans?) who has come back in time in an enormous Giger-esque ship intent on blowing things up in inventive ways and using those nasty slug things from “The Wrath of Khan” because he wants revenge on Spock. There’s a lot of alternative reality stuff going on, a lot of stuff about black holes and so on, and yes it is geeky. But if technobabble isn’t your thing, don’t worry, all it means is more explosions, more action, more great lines and more Spock, since in this film there’s two of him, but hey, he was always my favourite character!

It looks great too. Aside from some nifty special effects and the beautiful Giger-style Romulan ship already mentioned, there’s a lovely mix of things recognisable from the original series and sleek new features. The Enterprise still looks like an abstract duck, the women still wear miniskirts, but there’s some very smart new cadet uniforms added, some elegant new ships, and some enjoyably alien looking costumes for the Vulcans and the Romulans. A few new background aliens turn up from time to time, which is also a nice touch and a welcome step away from the usual “man with putty stuck to forehead” look of Trek aliens.

It’s not without fault, however. There’s a very silly sequence involving snow and daft-looking monsters, which really looks more like something out of the more recent Star Wars film. The music can be a little overpowering too, sometimes fitting but often melodramatic. Female characters get limited roles and seem to be defined by their relationships with men, though I suppose you could argue that this is in the style of the original series. But these are minor quibbles really. So, thank you “Star Trek”. Thank you Messrs Abrams, Orci, Kurtzman, Pine, Quinto, Bana, Urban, Pegg and Yelchin, thank you Ms Saldana and Ms Ryder, and thank you to everyone else involved with the film. Thank you for reminding me why I fell in love with this franchise in the first place. And most of all, thank you for reawakening that eleven year old girl, skipping down the street in the sunshine. Live long and prosper, and please, PLEASE make a sequel!